Many gasoline retailers are reporting an increase in gasoline theft, or “drive-offs.” A drive-off occurs whenever an automobile refueling at a remote, enabled fuel dispenser drives off without its occupants having paid for the gasoline. Drive-offs cost the industry nearly $300 million a year, which is more than $3,000 per store selling gas, and it is no longer just teenagers taking a few dollars for a thrill. It is now grown adults taking a full tank, which costs as much as $50 when the automobile being filled up is a sport utility vehicle. Many service station owners make only pennies a gallon. Thus, to make up for a $10 drive off, they have to sell anywhere from two to three hundred gallons of gas. It is money that retailers cannot recover or that retailers are forced to pass on to law-abiding customers, affecting both gas prices and in-store convenience items such as food and beverages. Additionally, some drive-offs leave the gas station at unsafe speeds to avoid being caught, creating a more dangerous environment.
The problem has become so serious that more than twenty states have recently passed laws in which a judge has the discretion to suspend the driver's license of someone convicted of gas theft. Several states have passed laws that motorists convicted twice for stealing gas automatically lose their licenses for six months, and another state law permits warrantless arrests for drive-offs.
However, despite tougher laws, police still solve very few cases of drive-offs, often because of a lack of information. Some police reports only list the color of the car, no make, model or description. Even with license plate numbers, it is difficult for law enforcement personnel to catch the thieves. Though it is tough to catch violators, service station owners do not take the crimes lightly and have become more aggressive in gathering and sending information to the police, some even installing cameras to photograph license plates and patrons.
One option often suggested by police to curtail drive-offs is to require prepayment, making people use a credit card or cash before they are able to pump a drop of gas. With prepay systems, each pump is not “enabled” (i.e., ready for pumping without attendant intervention) to purchase gasoline until the customer pays either by credit card or cash. Remote, point-of-sale systems allowing for payment using a customer credit or debit card and automatically enabling fuel dispensers directly from a fuel island, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,395,626 and 4,395,627 to Barker et al. which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties, are well known to those skilled in the art. Similarly, systems for accepting cash payments at the pump or fuel island, such as the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,470 to Bohnert et al. which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, are also well known to those skilled in the art.
However, remote cash pre-payment systems have not proven as effective as remote credit card pre-payment systems because of numerous issues, including providing cash change back to the customer and collecting the cash from one or multiple fuel islands. Because remote cash pre-payment systems are rare, most customers desiring to prepay for a fuel purchase with cash must still make two trips to the central location for pre-payment and for obtaining any change due and a receipt. Remote credit or debit pre-payment systems also have drawbacks, including that some customers do not wish to use credit and debit cards to pay for gas or other transactions and other customers, such as teenagers, may not even have a credit or debit card they can use at the pump. Now, when for so many years pumps were already enabled when customers arrived at the fuel island and prepayment systems have become widely available, consumers have become accustomed to conducting fuel purchase transactions without the need to walk to the central location for both pre-payment and post-pumping wrap-up.
Though some retailers have gone completely to a prepay-only system, the vast majority of service station owners have not because they want to provide their customers with options. As service station owners know, customers want convenience, and if one service station does not offer it, people will go elsewhere. It is clear that neither leaving the pumps in an enabled state at all times nor requiring pre-payment are completely satisfactory to service station owners because neither option provides both protection against drive-offs and the flexibility consumers desire. Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for remote authorization of fuel dispensing that reduce drive-offs but do not require prepayment by cash, credit cards, or the like.